The Supreme Efforts in Sport

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 201, 9 August 1927, Page 3

The Supreme Efforts in Sport

Players Who Have Excelled

There is no branch of sport in which at some time or other, we have not seen a supreme effort by an athlete or sportsman—an almost despairing effort—which has turned pos sible failure into a glorious success, or a personal triumph achieved as the result of sheer determination to excel. The pages of romance have frequently related almost impossible happenings, such as that of the “hero’’ who scores a century and then takes all 10 wickets for England against Australia, says an English commentator. Or the wonderful man who rides the winner of the Derby and Grand National on the same horse, wins the world’s heavyweight boxing championship, and scores the winning goal in the F.A. Cup final, all within the space of 12 months. ROMANCE OF SPORI. There is, however, no need to indulge in such Hights of imagination, for there have been many actual happenings in sport, almost of a romantic character.

Lord Desborough, tor instance, possibly is unrivalled in the wide range ot his athletic endeavours. He rowed for Oxford in the famous deadheat af 1877, won the three miles in the ’Varsity sports, the Epee championship at the military tournament in 1904 and 1906, and the punting Championship for three years. He has twice swum across Niagara pool; has climbed the Alps; shot big game in America, Africa, and India, and stroked an eight-oar across the Channel. It is difficult in such a career to discover what may be termed his supreme feat. But possibly this was when, within eight days, he climbed the little Matterhorn, Monte Rosa, the Matterhorn, Weishorn, and Rothorn, a herculean task, indeed. UNIQUE FEAT. Herbert Johnson, the well-known Hampshire sportsman, once accomplished a unique teat. Ho hunted with hounds when a cub was killed, shot a brace of partridges, and caught a 21b trout, all on the same day. An equally supreme effort was needed when Wiluam Pickford, the famous football legislator, passed a few strenuous hours on a certain day in 1898. He swam across the Windermere before breakfast, cycled from Bowness to Lodora, and climbed Helvellyn, each an accomplishment the ordinary individual would be ■ satisfied id perform alone on the same day. Cricket has given us many instances of the supreme effort. There was that memorable, never-to-be-forgotten innings of Gilbert Jessop against Australia at the Oval in 1902; R. E. Foster’s record innings on his first appearance in a Test match, and Charlie Macartney’s magnificent display, in the Leeds Test match, 1926, when he scored a “Trumper” century before lunch on the first day.

The classic example of a supreme effort in bowling is probably that of B. J. T, Bosanquet., who, on a perfect

wicket at Nottingham, in 1904, dismissed eight Australian batsmen for 10 9runs, and won the match for England against time. Rugby football has produced many sensational inspired efforts by individuals. On his last appearance for England against Scotland, W. J. A. Davies, famous fly-half, broke away towards the end of the game, and scored a great try that won the honours for the team he had led so well for several years. The famous tries scored by Dr. “Teddy” Morgan for Wales agaim New Zealand, that brought about the one defeat of the redoubtable All Blacks; that of A. L. Gracie, for Scotland against Wales, at Cardiff, and another on the same enclosure by Harry Stephenson, for Ireland, were the results of sheer inspiration and nothing else.

There have been many similar happenings in athletics, but it is only necessary tc deal with one or two of them. In that ever-memorable 1500 metres race in the 1912 Olympic Games, at Stockholm, A. N. S. Jackson. then a youthful student at Oxford, ran gloriously, to win in dramatic manner against several apparently invincible Americans. ENGLISH TRIUMPH. Then, in the same games at Pans in 1924, three English athletes, Harold Abrahams, Eric Liddell, and Douglas Lowe, ran the races of their lives, and defeated rivals from the rest of the world, as did Albert Hill, in the 800 and 1500 metres events, at Antwerp, in 1920.

In a multitude of individual triumphs in Association football, two stand out in my memory. In 1910, in the inter-’Varsity Soccer match, B. S. Farnfield broke through in the last minute and scored a wonderful winning goal, while, in an F.A. Cup tie, Harold Fleming, the idol of Swindon, was once brought from a sick bed to play against Tottenham Hotspur m a cup tie, and shot three goals that gave Swindon the victory by the odd goal of five. The more placid game of bowls has had its sensations. In 1920 W. N. Wake, the international, won an exciting match for England against Scotland. With Scotland lying four shots, • and all their rinks finished Wake trailed the jack with the last wood down, and snatched a dramatic one point victory for his side. It was the shot of a lifetime. In golf, A. C. M. Croome at Hoylake in 1904, playing John Bad when at the height o this powers, gave a “miracle” display for nine holes, which he accomplished in 33 strokes, and won an unexpected victory, while in a championship at St. George’s, Sandwich, Charles Macfarlane went out in 31 against “Chick” Evans, the American, and won decisively. G., B. Leigh, the international, once scored 11 goals out of 15 in an Eng lish lacrosse championship match. And so 1 could continue till sufficient instances have been given to prove that at some particularly inspired moment of his life an athlete in any branch of sport may make the supreme effort which becomes historical.